


The Nanny

by pterawaters



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Nanny, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Prompt Fill, short fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-21
Updated: 2019-01-21
Packaged: 2019-10-13 20:04:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17494430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pterawaters/pseuds/pterawaters
Summary: Danny Williams is a single father in need of a nanny to look after his two kids. When he interviews "S. McGarrett" for the job, the applicant is nothing like what he expected.





	The Nanny

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Erandri](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Erandri/gifts).



> Erandri requested #46 from [this list of prompts](http://pterawaters.tumblr.com/post/181932933949/send-me-a-ship-and-a-number-and-ill-write-a-short), "nanny/single parent AU". I hope you like it!

Danny sighs, looking down at the resume on the table. He tries to sip his coffee (black, none of the fancy stuff, thanks) while he reads over it one last time, but the coffee is too hot. He should have just met "S. McGarrett" at home, where he knows how to make the coffee drinkable instead of scalding.

He clocks the tall guy with the muscles as soon as he walks in the door and assesses his danger level as somewhere in the "significant" to "significant but not in this context" range. After all, he's dressed in a blue polo shirt that doesn't at all match the cargo pants, and combat boots. The level of human disaster that came up with the outfit decreases Danny's threat assessment to "probably not harmful", and he turns his attention back to waiting for the nanny he's supposed to interview.

Except Polo Muscles approaches his table and asks, "Mr. Williams?" with a friendly, if hesitant smile on his face.

"Yeah?" Danny replies, wary. “What’s going on? How do you know my name?”

For a split second, the guy gives Danny a concerned look. Then his eyes lower to the paper on the table, which he points to. “I’m Steve McGarrett. We have an appointment.”

Danny blinks at the man in confusion for far too long before he understands what has happened. “Oh!” He stands and offers his hand, saying, “I’m sorry. I assumed the ‘S’ stood for something more like ‘Sandra’, given the job description.”

“That’s not going to be a problem, is it?” Steve asks as he shakes Danny’s hand, his palm dry and warm. 

“No, of course not,” Danny lied. He can’t ever imagine letting this man take care of his children. However, it would be rude to cut the interview short, and Steve McGarrett strikes Danny as the kind of guy one isn’t rude to without encountering unpleasant consequences. “Um. Sit. Let’s sit.” 

“Great!” The charming smile almost distracts Danny from the precision of Steve’s movements – deadly precision if he’s reading things right.

“Your resume says you spent some time in the Navy?” Danny asks, kicking himself for letting the resume’s clever construction downplay that fact. “What made you want to get into childcare?”

“Well, my first job after I was discharged was as a bodyguard,” Steve says, reaching across the table to point at the line that reads, “Child safety specialist.” Who in their right mind would use  _ those _ words for  _ that  _ job? “My charge was a bright six-year-old named Sara. I found I enjoyed interacting with her more than the security aspects of my job. When the family moved away, I was assigned to protect a local CEO. Let’s just say the general tone of that job left a lot to be desired. I figured why not go after a job I might like more?”

“That’s insane, you know that, right?” Danny asks, marveling at Steve’s offended surprise. “I can’t pay you what a bodyguard makes. I’m on a single salary, the limits of which are dictated by the good city of Honolulu. I can pay at most, like twelve bucks an hour.”

“I don’t need much,” Steve insists, before changing the topic. “The listing says you’ve got two kids? What are their names? What are they like?”

The questions ping Danny’s suspicion, but this is only the second response to his ad in the past three weeks, and Mrs. Billings was nuttier than a snickers bar. He decides to play this out, see how it goes. “Grace is twelve and Charlie is five. They’re both in school, which I guess is why their mother felt it was alright to move to Las Vegas with her new husband and leave me with full custody during the school year!”

“Ah,” Steve says, his eyes a little wide. Danny probably let the volume of his voice get away from him again. 

“Sorry.” Danny sighs, looking down at the resume so he doesn’t have to look at Steve’s likely concern for his mental wellbeing. “Are you really working on your Education degree?”

Steve’s concern melts into what one might call an unfairly cute level of excitement. “Yeah! I want to teach science, or maybe history. Coach football, if I can. The classes are online, so I’d be working on them while the kids are in school.”

Shrewdly, Danny asks, “How are you at coaching cross country?” 

“I run five miles a day, six days a week.”

Looking again at Steve's physique, Danny decides that yeah, that tracks.

“Grace wants to make the team this year. She says it’s going to be her place in the middle school crowd. ‘Cept I’ve got bad knees, so…”

“I could take her! Maybe in the morning before you have to leave for work. Or Charlie and I could ride a bike alongside her, if he’s not fast enough on his own. By the way, what does he like? Dinosaurs or --”

“Race cars,” Danny responds, wondering how the hell Steve is making himself seem so trustworthy. There’s got to be something wrong with him. People like him don't just exist. "You're some sort of creep, aren't you?"

Steve's eyes widen in what appears to be genuine shock. He trips over his tongue for a moment before declaring, "No! I just…" He takes a moment, and Danny can't tell if he's preparing a lie or just gathering his words. "I saw a lot during my time in the Navy. It was hard. I lost…" He sighs. "Well, I lost friends. I was good at my job, but I couldn't take it anymore, you know? I was thinking a job like this would be less likely to end in…" 

"Death and destruction?"

Steve nods.

The suggestion of violence in relation to his kids reminds Danny of almost losing Grace when his ex-partner kidnapped her. Maybe having an ex-Navy, ex-bodyguard as a nanny isn't such a bad idea after all. 

"You haven't met my kids yet," Danny jokes, a pleasantly warm feeling invading his chest when Steve chuckles as well.

Yeah, maybe this could work out just fine.

**Author's Note:**

> [Here's the list of prompts again](http://pterawaters.tumblr.com/post/181932933949/send-me-a-ship-and-a-number-and-ill-write-a-short). Prompt me in the comments or over on tumblr and I'll see what I can do!


End file.
